Monthly Archives: August 2013

On this day one hundred years ago, 31 August, 1913 it is five days on from the audacious action of tram drivers and conductors with the Dublin United Tramways Company who simultaneously stopped and abandoned their vehicles mid morning on the streets of Dublin causing chaos on the tramlines.

Via social media, smart phones and traditional news channels a flood of bloody images, footage and reports of the unbearable suffering inflicted on the Syrian masses has been broadcast around the world.

Elysium is a dystopian sci-fi action film released in August 2013, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. Set in the year 2154, it follows the story of Max da Costa, a factory worker living in the ruins of a future Los Angeles. In this future, the rich and powerful have fled the poverty, disease, and environmental destruction they’ve wrought on the world, and moved to a space station called Elysium. There they live in an idyllic society, far removed from the struggle of ordinary people on earth.

The final days of the trial revealed the disgusting new depths to which the US Military is sinking in an effort to persecute Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning. In 2010 this brave young military intelligence analyst released hundreds of thousands of secret documents to show the world the true face of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On 16 August, 2012, at Marikana, a bloody line was drawn in South Africa’s political sand when police in cold blood shot dead 34 workers and wounded 78. The few seconds of the massacre that were shown on TV tore down decades of carefully nurtured illusions about the ANC government and the capitalist state.

In the August primary election for Seattle City Council, Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant won a stunning 35% of the vote in a three-way race against two Democratic Party candidates. Over 44,000 people voted for Sawant, more votes than the incumbent Seattle mayor or any of his opponents.

Millions across the world, and especially in the Middle East, have been shocked by the killing of hundreds of mainly unarmed people in the Egyptian military’s brutal clearance of the two pro-Morsi camps in Cairo. In the days since then the military has continued its offensive.

The cloak and dagger tactics employed by Irish Water to garner media publicity for the installation of its ‘first domestic water meter’ on Thursday of last week is an unconscious admission that the imposition of a new water tax will face huge opposition around the country.